On Thursday Nov. 9, when President Trump and his team visited Beijing's Great Hall of the People, Chief of Staff John Kelly and a U.S. Secret Service agent skirmished with Chinese security officials over the nuclear football.

I've spoken to five sources familiar with the events. Here's what happened, as they describe it:

When the U.S. military aide carrying the nuclear football entered the Great Hall, Chinese security officials blocked his entry. (The official who carries the nuclear football is supposed to stay close to the president at all times, along with a doctor.)

A U.S. official hurried into the adjoining room and told Kelly what was happening. Kelly rushed over and told the U.S. officials to keep walking — "We're moving in," he said — and the Americans all started moving.

Then there was a commotion. A Chinese security official grabbed Kelly, and Kelly shoved the man’s hand off of his body. Then a U.S. Secret Service agent grabbed the Chinese security official and tackled him to the ground.

The whole scuffle was over in a flash, and the U.S. officials told about the incident were asked to keep quiet about it. Trump's team followed the normal security procedure to brief the Chinese before their visit to Beijing, according to a person familiar with the trip — but somebody at the Chinese end either didn't get the memo or decided to mess with the Americans anyway.

I'm told that at no point did the Chinese have the nuclear football in their possession or even touch the briefcase. I'm also told the head of the Chinese security detail apologized to the Americans afterwards for the misunderstanding.

Updated with Secret Service statement:

“An individual, not part of the official delegation, attempted to prevent one of our protectees from entering a room. A U.S. Secret Service agent quickly intervened and a short scuffle ensued. The individual complied with the agent’s directions and no further action was necessary. At no time did anyone involved fall to the ground. The event continued without incident.”

https://www.axios.com/scoop-skirmish...746fecc6f.html
]]>International PoliticsIrondukehttp://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=67008Authoritarian Advance: Responding to China’s Growing Political Influence in Europehttp://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=67007&goto=newpost
Sun, 18 Feb 2018 16:36:47 GMTIntersting read. It's not a new topic but it is good to see China's strategy towards Europe being monitored and brought to wider public attention.

The Israeli police announced on Tuesday that there was sufficient evidence indicating Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took bribes in two separate cases and acted "against public interests."

The two cases are the so-called Case 1000 – in which Netanyahu is suspected of accepting lavish gifts from wealthy benefactors in return for advancing their interests – and Case 2000, which alleges that Netanyahu tried to strike a deal that would have provided him with positive coverage in Israel's second largest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, in exchange for hurting its free rival, Israel Hayom.

According to the police, in Case 1000, Netanyahu received champagne, cigars, jewelry and clothing, by demand and systematically, valued at over one million shekels (around $280,000). The gifts he received from the Israeli-American Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan increased significantly once Netanyahu was elected prime minister.

The police said that in return for the gifts, Netanyahu gave Milchan five specific benefits:

He pushed for the so-called Milchan Law, which gives tax breaks to Israelis returning to Israel after spending time abroad – a break worth over million shekels for Milchan. Yair Lapid, who is now in the opposition but was Netanyahu's finance minister in the past, testified to this.

He assisted Milchan in extending his U.S. visa and set up a meeting between Milchan and the then-director general of the Communications Ministry to advance the producer's interests in the Israeli television market.

The prime minister also intervened to prevent the collapse of Israel's Channel 10 television, in which Milchan was a minority shareholder.

Netanyahu helped further a deal tied to India businessman Ratan Tata, who was Milchan's business partner. The police said that Netanyahu "pushed the deal even though officials in the Defense Ministry and the Prime Minister's Office opposed the project."

Australian billionaire James Packer was Milchan's partner but the police did not specify what benefits he may have received. The value of the gifts that Milchan gave to Netanyahu was 750,000 shekels, while those from Packer amounted to around 250,000 shekels. Packer began supplying gifts to Netanyahu from the time he and Milchan decided to divide the burden of the gift-giving between them.

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/...obes-1.5812016
]]>International PoliticsIrondukehttp://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=67005Polish Holocaust Lawhttp://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=67003&goto=newpost
Sat, 10 Feb 2018 02:40:56 GMTIt is sad that I have to criticise a Government that I helped vote into power again but these idiots are well just idiots more concerned with the past than the future. They have done 'stoopid' before - storming the offices of a NATO affiliated Organisation to revoke someones security pass - but now they are getting worrying.

So this PiS government is becoming in Polish terms increasingly Dmowski-an rather than Jagiellonian as they promised - some of them in person to me. I will not bore you with the history but Dmowski was basically a nationalist - at times an ancestor worshiper type nationalist who thought Poles were a 'narod', 'volk' or 'race' in English - a result perhaps of the Sarmatian theory that the Polish aristocracy are descended from old Iran. Fortunately he was in his time opposed by Piłsudski who saved Poland and perhaps all Europe from the Red Army in 1920. Piłsudski was a Polish Lithuanian and remembered the Commonwealth and the freedoms it allowed - I think religious freedom was granted in the 1500s from memory. But the Commonwealth evidently had to freedom of religion as it was comprised of what is today parts of Poland, all the Baltics, Belarus and most of Ukraine. Fine worship as you please - it is normal now. Should be anyway. No country is a 'pure race' - do the genetic studies - and trying to make it so would be impossible, pointless and most likely detrimental to the 'race' in gene pool diversity terms.

Now however if I proclaim that some Poles were complicit in the Holocaust in my native country I may be prosecuted. I proclaim it here - which I do - and will do so there and wheresoever it is disputed with me be in Poland or not. I am a Pole. Dmovski was a Pole too and his supporters were anti Semites because they viewed Poles as a 'race'. I do not like some facts but I prefer to face them rather than ignore or rule them 'illegal' to mention but some Poles - a minority for sure - were complicit in the Holocaust. Some no doubt were forced by the Nazis but others were willing accomplices. If you are you are trying to tell me that there was no antisemetism in Poland pre WW2 you are talking BS. My Pater told me how his Pater said he had to wash underneath his foreskin or he would become a "Jew boy". It happened - probably only a minority - but deal with it. It is our guilt as a nation to have any of us be complicit with an enemy let alone an organised mass murder program but it happened.

To deny this by law is insanity of the highest order; it doesn't change the facts. To make it illegal to say Jan Stanislaw was a Polish national and fed gas into the gas chambers (I have been there) is insane - it is true and prosecute me if you wish. It is akin to Muscovy where history is changed by law - Crimea was always "Russian" etc - well no. I dare say I will be arrested or whatever next time I visit the country where most of people call home.

More importantly this PiS Government, though it has done some good things - the Three Seas Initiative is flawed in my view but better than nothing - the Baltic Pipeline (gas from Norway) etc... by turning inward has missed the best chance since the Khmelnytsky rebellion to rebuild a new form of the Commonwealth or Rzeczpospolita. The problem is to have a new Confederation you have to accept the views of others that might differ from yours - their religious practices - their freedom to express those views and all this supposedly Jagiellonian looking Government is Dmowski-an. Instead of reaching out to where it actually matters - for their own security - they are fart arsing with the Polish history of the Holocaust which by and large would otherwise be held not accountable anyway. These guys are deeply misguided.
]]>International Politicssnapperhttp://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=67003Jordan Peterson vs New Leftism / Neo-Marxismhttp://www.worldaffairsboard.com/showthread.php?t=66997&goto=newpost
Fri, 02 Feb 2018 20:56:40 GMTOk i know i am a couple of weeks late watching this but i finally got around to it, and wow. I concur with the hype that this is one of the (unintended for Channel 4 / British television) greatest interviews on broadcast media (at least crappy British broadcast media) in like a generation.
It...Ok i know i am a couple of weeks late watching this but i finally got around to it, and wow. I concur with the hype that this is one of the (unintended for Channel 4 / British television) greatest interviews on broadcast media (at least crappy British broadcast media) in like a generation.

It gets better the more times you watch it. And the follow-up interviews / reactions are great too (just search around on Youtube).

The interview speaks for itself.

I had never heard of Jordan Peterson before, but i am glad that i have now. A breath of fresh air in the muddy era of intellectual decline (on both Right and Left) that the Western World has been trudging through for a long time now.